The Resistor (P.1)
by Gadje
Summary: An epic adventure -- the animorphs meet a bounty hunter and are in for some action. SET EARLIER IN THE SERIES! For sure pre-45, maybe earlier, I started this a while back and forgot it :)


  
Author's Note:  
You are about to read a very in-depth fan fiction in which much effort was put. It is not *the* story of the Animorphs, but *a* story about them...and any additional characters and concepts I've created myself, and hereby assume all credit for. Also, I've chosen to spare all the boring review that you'd normally think of as the first chapter in a regular, published Animorphs story. Thank you for your time and consideration.  
  
  
  
  
  
PART 1NE: THE RESISTOR  
  
  
Chapter 1ne  
  
  
JAKE  
  
  
It had to have been one of the worst battles we had ever fought, and surely the worst by far when it came to memories of the Yeerk pool. You can be certain that if anything started down there, it would end up horrible.  
There was a sticky, gelatinous layer of blood coating the ground, seeping into everything it touched, staining and poisoning. And we were standing in the thick of it. Worse yet, we had created it. It spilled from those we had torn apart, leaving only gory remains that left you thinking of hamburgers...and almost hungry...  
But as much as this was a huge blow to the Yeerks, they had a backup plan that would have been well worth it. We shortly found ourselves in a seamless cage. Perfect, I thought in tired sarcasm. Actually, a sick, deep part of me really was glad. I wouldn't have to keep fighting this way. I'd just sit here, nice and quiet...  
  
  
RACHEL  
  
  
I wanted OUT! Being trapped in a box is no fun at all. AT ALL. I wanted to rip the throat out of whoever made us kill all those innocent Hork-Bajir and stuck us in a box. Yet, somehow I knew that nobody forced us to sneak in here and start a fight...and we were just asking to get caught...but it didn't matter. What mattered was that we were in a box.  
What do we DO? We've got to get out of here somehow, I said, hoping it was true, and that we wouldn't meet our terrible fates that night.  
Maybe we could morph bugs and pray they open the door? Marco, of course.  
There isn't any door! And they would have to be completely stupid to fall for that...again, Tobias said, his thought-speak shaky.  
There is no way out, escape is virtually impossible from this containment unit, Ax informed us calmly and regretfully.  
Suddenly, the walls of our...containment unit...seemed to disappear. I knew the were just transparent, but tried hard not to tell myself this. I couldn't stand the thought of Visser Three torturing us in front of his audience of Controllers like some mad theatre run by some insane puppet master.  
But my worries should have been elsewhere as his thought-speak filled our minds so that it felt as though they'd been pumped with molten lead.  
ANDALITE BANDITS, YOU'VE-  
  
  
TOBIAS  
  
  
If I'd been human, I'd have died of shock right then and there. A young man, maybe in his late twenties, stood up. I could see he had on a brown leather hat with a feather stuck in it's brim, and a faded gray jacket that looked as though it were melting into his worn Levi's. Just like a common man, one that shopped at Natural Wonders maybe, but plain ordinary when you got right down to it.  
Turns out, he wasn't. And if any of us bothered to look closely, we may have seen it, might even have been able to do something about it.  
It wasn't just that he stood. Don't be fooled, no Controller had ever had the guts to just stand up it the middle of something as valuable as that moment, but there was something else to it. No, it was that he stood up and grinned, like he was having the time of his life, and nothing could hurt him.  
He reached into that tattered excuse for a jacket and whipped out a weapon that could have looked like a Dracon if you squinted, I guess, (I'm not positive--hawks aren't known squinters by nature) and shot Visser Three in the back of his head.  
The only known Andalite Controller fell to knees, then flopped on the floor like a dead fish right in the middle what seemed like the greatest triumph for the Yeerks ever to be seen on earth.   
After him, dozens of terrified Hork-Bajir fell, some were very close to us, and I could still see them breathing, though, which struck me as odd.   
The man drove Controllers cowering in the dark corners and dank crevices of the Yeerk pool, all the while making his way to our cage.   
Is he a good guy, or a bad guy? Marco questioned uncertainly, sounding almost if he were begging that the mad rebel Controller was going to rescue us.  
I have never seen this type of behavior displayed by a Controller before, said Ax, and you only have sixty-seven of your minutes left in morph.  
The man stood directly in front of us.   
"I do hope you don't mind leaving early, but I have better things to do today, this being only second priority," he told us.  
THONK-  
  
  
  
"PROF." CREEGGAN  
  
I hudled in a tight ball, waiting in his ship. I didn't know when he'd come back, or even IF he'd come back. I was scared. So, so scared  
(you'll see the Shadow soon enough)  
and I wanted to  
(see the Shadow)  
be back home where I could  
(escape the Shadow)  
sleep in the shade. Forget all about Them. Having Them inside my mind, feeling their tendons burst as I ripped into their flesh with suring mental rage, then flinging the remains on the hot pavement to roast in the sun. My Shadow did it. He was there, He saw it all, and He did it.   
So I waited, hugging myself, and staying flat against the wall of my invisable cage. I wouldn't have known there was a cage there at all, if he hadn't told me. Funny, I didn't think cages came in invisable. How did you know when you bought an invisable cage? If you can't see it, then certainly anyone could just sell you an empty box and SAY there's an invisable cage inside. I don't think they'd weight very much. Light as a   
(Shadow)  
feather, probably. Unless it was a normal cage just PAINTED invisable.  
That could be it. I-  
He was back! And he had brought me friends! OH! FRIENDS! A kitty, a teddy bear, a birdie, a doggie, a monkey, and a deer. Something was a little bit wrong with the deer, but I didn't mind. He probably got them wholesale.   
He put them in my cage, but they didn't talk to me. They just stared. They seemed very mean. I didn't think I liked them. Not at all.   
"Here's some company for you, Paul. Aren't they better than those bad people at the hospital?"  
"I-I...yes?"  
"Don't you like them?"  
"No..."  
"Do you like the Shadow? Should I bring you the-"  
"NO!"   
"Good. You get along, then."   
  
  
CASSIE  
  
  
I saw the whole thing happen, but still didn't believe it. Who was this guy? He'd stunned nearly everything that moved in the Yeerk pool, then knocked us out and somehow got us into his ship. How he did that will forever be a mystery to me.   
But there was this other man with us now, and he was very interesting to me. He acted like he wanted to please the Maniac (which was how I'd come to think of him), like he was afraid of him...yet, he seemed to look up to him, and it was sick, but he looked at him with something like love.   
Oh, we definitely need out of here, moaned Marco as he surveyed our surroundings--another transparent cage, but inside the Maniac's ship. It was actually kind of cool, with thick grass underneath us, and patches of fine white sand. The ceiling was like a page out of an underground comic: strange, twisted creatures brandashing weapons and apparently fondling each other with hands that either had no flesh and were a grizzled mess, or were plastered with tatoos of unmentionable horror.   
Hey, let's go talk to that guy. He looks crazy, but maybe he knows something, Tobias suggested, Excuse me, mister? Hey! HEY! Stop that, we're not going to hurt you...HEY!   
The crazy guy was trying to get away by climbing up the sides of a wall, making him look like the world's greatest mime. It would have been amusing under other circumstances.  
  
  
END OF PART 1NE  
  
A/N: If I get at least 30 reviews, good or bad, I'll continue. (Why count bad? you ask...well, if it's constructive criticism, I can improve, right?)  



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